Articles

Our home had a temple for Lord Murugan inside. I grew up hearing his name many times a day. On occations, I see worshippers (often relatives) who dance on thorny shoes. The dance is called veriyaattam. They also perform kuravaiyaatam. The traces of it can be date back to sangam times. Calendar we buy and pictures we have at home often portrays a contradictory figure - a child form of the deity - that doesn't fit with the dance.

Ancient Tamil literature Tholkappiyam refers to the diety as Cheyon - the red colored or fierce warrior. It describes warriors dancing veriyaattam after a successful war. Kuravai - mother of Cheyon - is represented as a goddess of victory. There are only few references of it. Iravatham Mahadaven - an archeologist who decyphered ancient tamil scripts - gives an explanation for Murugan as Murukku+an - fierce or ruthless warrior. He also mentions the term has recently morphed to fit the current form - a child - and some refer to it as murugu - beauty.

Recently I came across some interesting names, when I read about some Indian history. Kumara Gupta Maurya, and his successor Skanda Gupta Maurya, who printed coins of Lord Karthikeya. The coin interestingly has a child diety who sits on Peacock. The word kumar in sanskrit means ilavan in Tamil. These borrowed words are now in use in Tamil. There is no mention of name Murugan or Cheyon in Maurya literature. According to their legend, Karthikeya is born from Lord Shiva.

A wave of regious mission swept through India few milleniums before. It started with Jainism around 5AD, then Buddism and then Shaivam and Vainavam. Shivaties adopted local languages and integrated dieties, while vanavites called local dieties as avathars. The omission of Kuravai and inclusion of Shiva, transforming Cheyon - a fierce warrior - to Skanda - a child, including wifes of both dieties Valli of Murugan and Deivaanai or Skandan - shows the struggle Shivaites went through to integrate the faith.

It is survival of the fittest, that shaped evolution, according to Darwin. This has been ingrained into many of us from our school days. But new studies are suggesting that the availability of living space could have greater influence. When birds reached the sky, this new space gave evolution a leap. When Dinosaurs died out, the new space gave mammals a chance to flourish. It is an interesting outlook.

The same ideas of competition and space influence our decision in different walks of life. Some believe a highly competitive school produces smart kids. Keeping one fully engaged, makes them smarter. While some see having space gives room for new ideas and help them think out of the box. Many learning techniques, suggest spaced and comfortable learning, helps learn faster and with confidence.

Learning to ride a bike!!! hum... that means parents has to hold their seat and run behind them and child has to fall over couple of times. Then your child will learn to ride bike. No No No..... There is an easiest way to learn.

Watch this wonderful video. Gayathri learned to ride bike in less than 3 hours(split into 30 ~ 60min each day). As soon as I put the pedals back on bike and the MAGIC happened.